Never Will I Knit... Until Now

I told myself for years that never will I ever knit a fingering weight sweater. Especially not one in adult sizes. Yet here we are... And I have two of them on my needles. One of them I started recently, and the other I started a year and a half ago. My near future knitting goal is to knock both of these off the needles!

I'll start with the recent addition to my WIP's pile. This is the Blue Hour Sweater, designed by Suvi Simola. It was honestly a tough choice picking out which of her sweater patterns to use, and I originally had my heart set on a different pattern that had cables going down the arms. But I was ultimately looking for a simple, easy, and (relatively) quick sweater, and the Blue Hour Sweater pattern was a better fit. I'm using Knit Picks Hawthorne Kettle Dyed in the Delphinium colorway for the primary color, and the brown accent stripes are Good for Ewe Sultry Steps yarn in Chocoholic.  Here is my Ravelry Project Page for it, if you want more details or pictures.

Picked up collar is shown here.

I've been making awesome progress on it. It's a fingering weight sweater and I'm surprised how quickly it has been going. I started it in late November, but mostly put it on hold for the Christmas season, so it's only been the last few weeks that it has gotten steady attention.

Trying on sweaters that are still in progress is always fun. I love seeing how it grows as time goes on.

All that is left now is the sleeves. Which is the part of sweaters that I dislike knitting the most... So I might have to bribe myself with candy to make sure they get done in a timely manner. I'm so excited to have this sweater in my wardrobe though, so I'm not too worried about it languishing unknitted.

Sweater sleeve is on some needles! Until the sleeve decreases start, it fits on a 16" circular for easy knitting. I'll be switching to DPN's or magic loop circular soon.

My other sweater has been a work in progress for ages. I bought the materials and started knitting it when we were living in St. Paul, MN... We have since moved three times and are now living in Texas. It is a far traveling cardigan! I'm using the Mama Vertebrae pattern designed by Kelly van Niekerk. I'm using some Cascade Yarns Heritage Sock, which is super soft and comes in every color imaginable. I had started the collar/buttonband ages ago, and then promptly forgot that it existed and it fell to the bottom of my WIP's pile. I had a surge of motivation yesterday and powered through the rest of it, and also picked up the sleeve stitches, which can sometimes be a tedious task. It's still a bit bunched up from being stuffed in a bag, but once it is blocked it will look much better. I just need to get through the sleeves.

Bunched up, but I am loving these colors and stripes! It looks funky flat, but I tried it on and really like how it looks.

Sleeve one is on the needles. I did the first few rows, which can be a bit tricky with the underarm stitches being picked up.

One other thing I'm excited about is new project bags! I had mentioned to my mom ages ago that I would like some new bags to store my knitting, and right around New Years she delivered on that wish. We have troublemaker cats that like to play with, chew on, and steal yarn related things, so my projects MUST be in a closed bag when not in use. These cute zippered bags keep my projects safe. One is a roomy sock project bag, which is currently holding one ball of yarn but could easily fit a second. The other is my sweater project bag, and can hold four balls of yarn plus a sweater in progress. I might need to browse fabrics soon and request a couple more of the big bags!

Knitting bags are better when they are crafted with love.

That's it for now! I have lots more projects to talk about, but I'll save those for a new post. Here's the crafty kitties that always keep me company while knitting.

Linus the drowsy cat and Apollo, the king of the castle.